The Khronos Group who oversee OpenGL development have announced not only OpenGL 4.5, but they are also encouraging others to come forward to join them in building the next generation of OpenGL.

It's been a turbulent time for graphics API development with AMD announcing Mantle, and even Apple bringing their own API to the table called Metal. We have then had lots of back and forth between developers putting up blog posts discussing the good and bad for OpenGL itself. Now we are here for the future of OpenGL and it's all good news.

For OpenGL 4.5 the most interesting feature at a glance (from a non-developer perspective) is this:

DX11 emulation features – for easier porting of applications between OpenGL and Direct3D.

I can't wait to see what developers make of it. With all the complaints recently about OpenGL being harder this is an interesting step to take, and something I feel is needed for those developers a little more wary of using something they don't know. Anything that makes it easier is a bonus for us on a smaller platform that depends on OpenGL.

QuoteKhronos announced a call for participation today in a project to define a future open standard for high-efficiency access to graphics and compute on modern GPUs. Key directions for the new ground-up design include explicit application control over GPU and CPU workloads for performance and predictability, a multithreading-friendly API with greatly reduced overhead, a common shader program intermediate language, and a strengthened ecosystem focus that includes rigorous conformance testing. Fast-paced work on detailed proposals and designs are already underway, and any company interested to participate is strongly encouraged to join Khronos for a voice and a vote in the development process.

I really hope more and more companies and even game developers get on board with this and help OpenGL mature. It's a good thing that people talked up about it recently, even if some of them were wrong and counter-argued by people more in the know.

See the full post on it here in the official announcement. There are lots of companies talking up OpenGL development near the bottom of the announcement, so I can't wait to see what they cook up together.
It's fun to see AMD talk it up while they still work on their own competitor, and we still don't know if AMD's Mantle will be on Linux. I hope they can redeem themselves in their closed source driver with the new OpenGL.

oha, wtf NVidia... but despite the driver not being open, we always knew that they take it pretty serious with their drivers features. But that's really faster than anyone would have expected.

For porting .. that's a good step in a direction I didn't expect. If the driver developers don't emulate it back in OGL but map it directly to the GPU commands (which they could), that could have a huge impact. Though, will depend on the implementation of the driver.

oha, wtf NVidia... but despite the driver not being open, we always knew that they take it pretty serious with their drivers features. But that's really faster than anyone would have expected.
For porting .. that's a good step in a direction I didn't expect. If the driver developers don't emulate it back in OGL but map it directly to the GPU commands (which they could), that could have a huge impact. Though, will depend on the implementation of the driver.

“We are super excited to contribute and work with the Next Generation OpenGL Initiative, and bring our experience of low-overhead and explicit graphics APIs to build an efficient standard for multiple platforms and vendors in Khronos,” said Johan Andersson, technical director at Frostbite - Electronic Arts. “This work is of critical importance to get the most out of modern GPUs on both mobile and desktop, and to make it easier to develop advanced and efficient 3D applications -[b] enabling us to build amazing future games with Frostbite on all platforms[/b].”

Can't Wait !!!

[code]“We are super excited to contribute and work with the Next Generation OpenGL Initiative, and bring our experience of low-overhead and explicit graphics APIs to build an efficient standard for multiple platforms and vendors in Khronos,” said Johan Andersson, technical director at Frostbite - Electronic Arts. “This work is of critical importance to get the most out of modern GPUs on both mobile and desktop, and to make it easier to develop advanced and efficient 3D applications -[b] enabling us to build amazing future games with Frostbite on all platforms[/b].” [/code]
Can't Wait !!! :D

STiAToha, wtf NVidia... but despite the driver not being open, we always knew that they take it pretty serious with their drivers features. But that's really faster than anyone would have expected.

For porting .. that's a good step in a direction I didn't expect. If the driver developers don't emulate it back in OGL but map it directly to the GPU commands (which they could), that could have a huge impact. Though, will depend on the implementation of the driver.

nvidia have had DSA as an extension for quite a long time. It's about time it was introduced properly for all though. It's something really nice, however, and I'll be using it the second that Mesa introduces support.

For lack of a better term, hopefully OpenGL NG will work this time. There's a much better chance of it thanks to the likes of Mantle, Metal, and DX12 (though it will likely compete more against DX12 - they've stated it will sit a little big higher to easier envelop GPU architecture differences).

As for Microsoft joining Khronos...that I'm not so fond of. They're not known for playing nicely (tin foil hat time: they might try sink OpenGL NG to try push DX12 forward more), and I hope all members of Khronos keep them in line.

[quote=STiAT]oha, wtf NVidia... but despite the driver not being open, we always knew that they take it pretty serious with their drivers features. But that's really faster than anyone would have expected.
For porting .. that's a good step in a direction I didn't expect. If the driver developers don't emulate it back in OGL but map it directly to the GPU commands (which they could), that could have a huge impact. Though, will depend on the implementation of the driver.[/quote]
nvidia have had DSA as an extension for quite a long time. It's about time it was introduced properly for all though. It's something really nice, however, and I'll be using it the second that Mesa introduces support.
For lack of a better term, hopefully OpenGL NG will work this time. There's a much better chance of it thanks to the likes of Mantle, Metal, and DX12 (though it will likely compete more against DX12 - they've stated it will sit a little big higher to easier envelop GPU architecture differences).
As for Microsoft joining Khronos...that I'm not so fond of. They're not known for playing nicely (tin foil hat time: they might try sink OpenGL NG to try push DX12 forward more), and I hope all members of Khronos keep them in line.

They really need to get this right, clean up the codebase etc. If this next version really makes developing more attractive than on DX12 and developers start to favour it, this will be the biggest breakthrough in Linux gaming since the release of the Steam client. Really hoping that DX12 will somehow be the "Windows Vista" of APIs too .

The DX11 emulation suggests Valve and others are pretty committed to this happening.

They really need to get this right, clean up the codebase etc. If this next version really makes developing more attractive than on DX12 and developers start to favour it, this will be the biggest breakthrough in Linux gaming since the release of the Steam client. Really hoping that DX12 will somehow be the "Windows Vista" of APIs too :P.
The DX11 emulation suggests Valve and others are pretty committed to this happening.

berillions<code>“We are super excited to contribute and work with the Next Generation OpenGL Initiative, and bring our experience of low-overhead and explicit graphics APIs to build an efficient standard for multiple platforms and vendors in Khronos,” said Johan Andersson, technical director at Frostbite - Electronic Arts. “This work is of critical importance to get the most out of modern GPUs on both mobile and desktop, and to make it easier to develop advanced and efficient 3D applications - enabling us to build amazing future games with Frostbite on all platforms.” </code>

[quote=berillions]<code>“We are super excited to contribute and work with the Next Generation OpenGL Initiative, and bring our experience of low-overhead and explicit graphics APIs to build an efficient standard for multiple platforms and vendors in Khronos,” said Johan Andersson, technical director at Frostbite - Electronic Arts. “This work is of critical importance to get the most out of modern GPUs on both mobile and desktop, and to make it easier to develop advanced and efficient 3D applications -[b] enabling us to build amazing future games with Frostbite on all platforms[/b].” </code>
Can't Wait !!! :D[/quote]
Me either! Battlefield for linux seems much closer to a reality now! Frostbite being a beautiful engine and with it's awesome optimization + linux = oh hell yea :D

One of the new extension will simplify the utilization of DirectX-like coordinates within OpenGL, which means less works for developers

There are some interesting extensions, which can lower overhead in multithreaded scenarios, and some others which should reinforce stability.
Yes, they need to watch Microsoft very closely. They may attempt to kill the new spec in the egg...
About compatibility... This is not strictly emulation, but it allows OpenGL to speak some DirectX for certain things, like coordinates :
In DirectX, the coordinate system is Like this : (Left handed coordinates)
0---------->
|
|
|
V
While in OpenGl, it's : (Right Handed coordinates)
^ y
|
|
|
X--------> x
One of the new extension will simplify the utilization of DirectX-like coordinates within OpenGL, which means less works for developers :)

For anyone interested in a DX vs OGL contrast this is a great read on "The Network Effect" and the Market Lock Microsoft & Apple try so hard to achieve with Metal and Direct X
http://blog.wolfire.com/2010/01/Why-you-should-use-OpenGL-and-not-DirectX

I'm sure better minds than me have thought of this already, but is there any reason to not be afraid of the possibility that developers will say
"well there's no reason to make native opengl code instead of just sticking to pure directx since the new opengl can emulate it"?

But either way, this is exciting news

I'm sure better minds than me have thought of this already, but is there any reason to not be afraid of the possibility that developers will say
"well there's no reason to make native opengl code instead of just sticking to pure directx since the new opengl can emulate it"?
But either way, this is exciting news